Correction: This article was written a few hours ago. Since the writing of this article, tbyrn21 has apologised for his "grievous error" in regards to numbers, though adding that "I stand by my remarks that the Government has to do more for people with disabilities. The Prime Minister failed to answer my question this week as to why there is no department of disabilities. That problem still persists."

Disability advocate and Commonwealth Party member tbyrn21 was, like many others ideologically opposed to this budget, strong in his words yesterday in Parliament. One could argue he was the harshest of the opposition members, comparing this government to "the Ancient Spartans", and claiming that they will "have blood on their hands". These are quite loaded words, and indeed if you listen to tbyrn21, they're not without merit.

He claims the budget has completely gutted funding for the NDIS to a mere $1.4 million. Not billion. Million. A government quietly seeking to essentially cut off support for this nation's disabled population would be, as tbyrn21 said, outright criminal. Indeed, the thought sickens me.

But, fortunately, it is not correct. While tbyrn21 declared that "the NDIS and its associated entities are appropriated a grand total sum of $1,481,051", this is incorrect. In the budget, figures are mainly provided in thousands. So the figures provided have three zeros at the end. If something has just a 1, it has recieved $1000. If something has a 10, $10,000. You get the point.

tbyrn21's error here is a simple one - he forgot to add the zeroes. The NDIS launch transition agency was given $1,427,310,000 in this budget, while the NDIS quality and safeguards commission was given $53,741,000, totalling up to $1.4 billion.

Still, though, $1.4 billion for disability payments is a rather small sum, relatively speaking. Is that all this government has given for disabled Australians? Well, no. This is the funding for the administration of the NDIS. The actual meat and bones of the NDIS falls under the Department of Social Services, which was appropriated over $10 billion.

When compared to the previous budgets, where Social Services was appropriated just over $5 billion under Griffonomics, this is quite an increase for the Social Service department. Comparing the budget papers as well, over $175 billion has been granted to the Social Services under this government, versus Griffonomics' $159.6 billion.

Perhaps the million/billion error could simply have been a mistake, but to mistake funding for some facets of the NDIS for the whole kit and caboodle is incorrect and irresponsible. It must be underlined - the NDIS, if anything, will improve as a result of this budget. If anything, its funding is being increased. You can certainly argue that they should be funded to a greater extent, but claiming that their funding has dwindled to government pocket change is a lie.

- Alison Brooks, Pitchfork News